What is the GEO label

The GEO label is a dynamic graphical representation (with drill down functionality) of the metadata accompanying the data provided by GEOSS in the GCI.

The Global Earth Observations System of Systems (GEOSS) is a distributed system of systems that currently facilitates access to more than 28 million dataset records, and is constantly growing, choices faced when selecting a dataset can (depending on usage domain) be quite daunting. With such a great choice of datasets comes the problem of data quality assessment and dataset selection. To tackle this challenge, the former GEO Science and Technology Committee (STC) proposed to establish a GEO label "a label to recognize the scientific relevance, quality, acceptance and societal needs for activities in support of GEOSS". The STC suggested that the development of such a GEO label could significantly improve user recognition of the quality of geospatial datasets and that its use could help promote trust in datasets that carry it. In 2010-11 the European Commission financed two Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) projects (GeoViQua and EGIDA) to support the STC activities, with both projects adopting the responsibilities for defining the GEO label concept. In 2012 ID-03 GEO Task (http://www.geo-tasks.org/id03) took over the ST-09-02 and is now responsible for the development of the GEO label concept. The EGIDA project ended in 2012 but the GeoViQua is still working on defining the GEO label and providing its practical implementation until the beginning of 2014. GeoViQua believes that the GEO label could also assist in dataset searching and selection activities by providing users with visual cues of dataset quality and possibly relevance; in essence, a GEO label could effectively operate as a decision-support mechanism for dataset selection. We aim for the support of the broader GEO community and eventual endorsement by the GEO Implementation Boards, ExCom and GEO Plenary.

GEO label presentation and functionality

How the GEO label looks like

It is composed by 8 informational facets that represents the following concepts

‘Producer profile’ facet conveys availability of information about the producer of the dataset, e.g., organisation or individual who produced the dataset, their contact information, etc. (ISO191151, FGDC2, GeoViQua PQM3)

‘User feedback’ facet conveys availability of feedback, comments and ratings provided by the users of the dataset, e.g., general comments on dataset quality, identified problems, suggested use for the dataset, etc. (GeoViQua UQM4)

Fully filled-in background + white icon – indicates that information is available for this dataset.

White background + icon outline – indicates that information is not available for this dataset.

Partially filled-in background + icon outline – indicates that information is available only at a higher level for this dataset.

Based our user studies, we developed this GEO label representation.

When integrated in the GEOSS, an individual GEO label can be provided for each dataset catalogued in the Discovery and Access Broker in the GEOSS Common Infrastructure (or other data portals and catalogues) based on its available quality information. Producer and feedback metadata documents are being used to dynamically assess information availability and generate the GEO labels. The producer metadata document can either be a standard ISO/FGDC compliant metadata record supplied with the dataset, or an extended version of a GeoViQua-derived metadata record, and is used to assess the availability of a producer profile, lineage, producer comments, compliance with standards, citations and quantitative quality information. GeoViQua user feedback server collects and encodes (as metadata records) user and producer feedback on datasets; these metadata records are used to assess the availability of user comments and ratings, expert reviews and user-supplied citations for a dataset.

Example of the hover functionality in the first facet of the GEO label

Drill-down functionality

The GEO label provides drill-down functionality which will allow a user to navigate to a GEO label page offering detailed quality information for its associated dataset.

Example of the drill-down functionality in the quality information facet of the GEO label

GEO label generation technicalities

To build a GEO label we need a ISO or FGDC metadata document and a GeoViQua User Feedback metadata document. The facets of the GEO label will then be illuminated depending on queries to those documents. These queries can take the form of xpath expressions that are encapsulated in a GEO label API to generate and access its functionality.

XPaths

Currently the XPaths are now stored in 2 JSON configuration files and can be accessed/viewed on GitHub:

Value of field metadata encoded:http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.geoviqua.org%2FGVQ%2F4.0%2Fexample_documents%2FPQMs%2FDigitalClimaticAtlas.xml

Value of field feedback encoded: https%3A%2F%2Fgeoviqua.stcorp.nl%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffeedback%2Fitems%2Fsearch%3Ftarget_code%3DLCL12_GrnBcn_2005_07%26format%3Dxml%26view%3Dfull

Both fields combinded (URL sent to the API):BASE_URL? metadata =http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.geoviqua.org%2FGVQ%2F4.0%2Fexample_documents%2FPQMs%2FDigitalClimaticAtlas.xml& feedback =https%3A%2F%2Fgeoviqua.stcorp.nl%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffeedback%2Fitems%2Fsearch%3Ftarget_code%3DLCL12_GrnBcn_2005_07%26format%3Dxml%26view%3Dfull

Encoded only the ones needed for XML (& " ' < >) > to be used in PQM:http://base.url? metadata =http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.geoviqua.org%2FGVQ%2F3.1.0%2Fexample_documents%2FDigitalClimaticAtlas_v10.xml & feedback =https%3A%2F%2Fgeoviqua.stcorp.nl%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffeedback%2Fitems%2Fsearch%3Ftarget_code%3DLCL12_GrnBcn_2005_07%26format%3Dxml%26view%3Dfull

URL for API encoded encoded twice (also works in XML, but is not clickable/used as href): BASE_URL%3Fmetadata%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fschemas.geoviqua.org%252FGVQ%252F3.1.0%252Fexample_documents% 252FDigitalClimaticAtlas_v10.xml%26feedback%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fgeoviqua.stcorp.nl%252Fapi%252Fv1%252Ffeedback% 252Fitems%252Fsearch%253Ftarget_code%253DLCL12_GrnBcn_2005_07%2526format%253Dxml%2526view%253Dfull

GEO label integration in the GEOSS common infrastructure (GCI)

The integration in the GEOSS Common Infrastructure can be achieved in the server side and in the client side.

Server side integration in the DAB

In the server side, URL's for generating GEO labels are being integrated into the metadata records distributed by the Discovery and Access Broker (DAB). The label is considered a representation of the dataset and is being embedded in an ISO 19115 gmd:MD_BrowseGraphic element.

Client side integration in the GEO portal

In the GEO portal, the result of a query for information is a list of results. Some of this results can be datasets. The GEO label will be presented in the GEO portal next to summary results representing datasets and will help users to visually compare datasets using a metadata completeness criteria and will facilitate access to different aspects of the metadata by the use of the drill down functionality.

The process to define the GEO label

The design of the GEO label presented here has been GeoViQua project to build a GEO label as a potential future part of the GEOSS Common Infrastructure of the Global Earth Observing System of System (GEOSS). This effort is a GeoViQua contribution to ID-03 GEO Task. The aim of the GeoViQua project is to look for a consensus on the notion of the GEO label by means of participating in GEO tasks, GEO Plenary exhibitions, signing and MoU with the EGIDA project, and also by conducting a series of carefully designed user studies.

GEO label studies

In designing the GEO label, GeoViQua incorporated the mandate of the STC mentioned before but also recognized the importance of a user-centred design approach in order to develop a GEO label that is likely to garner user acceptance once deployed. Consequently, GeoViQua is approaching the development and evaluation of the GEO label via one preparatory and three main user-centred design phases. To this end, we have thus far conducted 3 user studies to

(1) identify the informational aspects of geospatial datasets upon which users rely when assessing dataset quality and trustworthiness (the preparatory phase), *

(2) elicit initial user views on the concept of a GEO label and its potential role as a solution to the stated problem of dataset selection (Phase I), and,

(3) evaluate prototype label visualizations (Phase II).

To date, we have completed the Preparatory Phase, as well as Phases I and II. Work is currently ongoing to develop the physical GEO label prototypes which will then be evaluated using established usability testing methods.